Feeding attachment for stokers and the like



J; c. CASLER. v FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOR STOKERS AND THE LIKE.

Patented May 9, 1922. 2 SHEETS -SHEET l- APTLICATION FILED APILZI' J. C. CASLER. FEEDING ATTACHMENT FOH STOKERS AND THE LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.21, 1921.

Patented May 9, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

MN, @ttouwm -niy invention is to is found that the MT rric JOHN CLIFFORD CASLER, Q? CHICOPEE FALLS, MASSACHUSETTS.

FEEDING ATTACHMENT emme,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, JOHN C. CAsLnn, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of 'Chicopee Falls, Hampden County, Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Feeding. Attachments for Stokers and the like, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in feeding attachments for furnace stokers and similar structures, and the general object of produce a simple and dependable structure and other material thoroughly broken, and

cause it to; run smoothly andpositively in front of the stoking plungers. My invention relates :more particularly to; that class of structures in which a hopperis vprovided with pockets delivering into chutes orcylin- .ders in which plungers reciprocate to force the material to the furnace. In practice it fuel'will not flow by gravity, and various forms of agitators have been used,but all have been more or less unsat1s in the pockets of the hopper and descend far factory. The fuel pockets just above the chutes or-cylinders,

andthe feed is not positive and even. At

tempts have been made 'to obviate'this by different devices, some of'which oscillate in the hopper,'but I have found that it is neces sary to have cutting blades which willv rotate enough to absolutely ,cut the material near the sidewalls and at the entrance to the chutes or cylinders, so that there will be nopossibility of clogging. By carrying out this idea and arranging the blades so that they will descend tothe entrance of the chute or cylinder when the plunger is in its outer position and will be rotating 'in-the sameplane at a-higher elevation when the plunger is moved forward, the difficulties are overcome, and a sure, constant feed is maintained. My invention is further intended to produce a strong, simple, and durab-le structure for carrying the above arrangement into effect, and also to produce a structure which naces, and'inore especially under-fed furnaces, but it willbeseen from the descrip- :tion which. follows th ee ing atta k Specification of L'ettersfatent.

the like, as for which will keep the fuel indicate corresponding views. I

clogs andtarches in the I the bearings for I Figure tis an end v ew of the'structure FOR STOKERS AND THE LIKE.

rammed May 9,1922,

Serial N0. 453,427.

plunger arrangement referred to, for breaking up and feeding material to retorts and instance coal or coke in the distillation of such materials, sawdust and finely divided wood in the distillation of wood, and in fact. any materials which are more or less finely divided and are fed to their ultimate point of consumption by a plunger mechanism. ihis will be better understood from the description which follows.-

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar reference characters parts in all: the

Figure 1 is a broken side elevation-of a stoking apparatus provemen'ts, showing a plunger in its retracted position;

provided with my im Figure 2 1s, a, View similar to Figure 1,

but with the plunger moved forwardto 1n shown in Figure 3. d

Figure 5 is a cross section onthe line 5 -Y5 of Figure 1, ,i

Figure 6 isan enlarged side elevation of a pair of cutting blades showing the means of attaching them "to their shaft, and

Figure 7 is an edge view of the structure shown'in Figure 6.

By way of example I have shown my invention applied to the common type of per 10, which has a series of pockets 12, and there can be one or'more of these, usually a considerable number, however, and the pockets are formed by inclined walls 11, and they deliver into the several parallel chutes or cylinders 13. Plungers 14 reciprocate in these cylinders and force the fuel forward into the furnace. These plungers can be operated in any usual or preferred way, and I have shown the customary means in which piston rods 15 have a crank connection with the shaft 17, and in which the piston rods have pendent arms 15*,sliding in slots 13 inthe bottom of the cylinders. The shaft 17 is suitably supported and connects by a belt 18 with a pulley 19 on the agitator shaft 20. I have shown an ordinary belt and pulley, but in practicethese hop- 7 i that when ground the blades 29 will the members 24, that is to the "itselfin a curve 32, the rigidly secured to the member 25 by through the blades can be thinned. subjected to great would preferably be sprocket wheels and chains, but any suitable driving connection can be used without affecting the invention.

The shaft 20 extends transversely through the hopper 10 just above the tops of the pockets 12, and is mounted at the ends 1n suitable bearings 21, and at intervals through the pocket in bearings 22. These bearings 2 form a convenient means of supporting the shaft rigidly, and each bearing is in the "form of a journal box having pendent and diverging arms 23 which straddle the crown 24 of the merging pocket walls 11, this part 24 being preferably formed by slightly corrugating the walls 11 below the crown 24:, thus giving it additional strength and better clearance. The arms 23 are secured to upper part; of the walls 11, by bolts 24, but they can be fastened in any suitable way.

The shaft 20 is rotatable, and it carries a series of blades 29 which can be secured, to the shaft in any suitable and strong manner, but 1 preferably make the connection as shown and described below, in orderthat "it may be simple, positive, and rigid; Said connection comprlses a block or member 25 which has a bore 26 to fit the shaft 20, and

which has preferably a keyway 27 so that it may be keyed tothe' shaft, and it is also fastened by a bolt 28, thus making'the connection'rigid and simple to'apply.

'Each blade 29 must be strong and capable of cutting. through the material without buckling or breaking, and I prefer to make it in the form shown, in whichthe blade has a straight side 30, 'isdoubled'over at'the then returned upon end asjshown at 31, and

opposite ends being bolts or rivets 38. lf fld'esirecl the edges of These blades-are strain, and it will be seen that they are rigidly secured on the shaft, that they pass through the material edgewise, and that by having the curved member 32 meet the member 30 at the outer end, the 'curvedmember acts as a brace. This is de sirable because the blades are subjected to very severe strain.

These blades arranged in pairs,and diverge from the member 25 as shown in Fig ures 1, 2, and 6, and they are grouped upon the shaft 20 so that there will be two pairs to each pocket 11, and they are positioned so down they will enter the narrowest part of the pocket close to the sides, and at the entrance to the chute or cylinder 13 beneath. It is particularly import'ant that the andthe shaft is in its groups of blades be assembled timed so that when a piston 14 retracted position as in Figure 1,

be in their most downward position at the entrance to the chute "or cylinder 13', and when the piston is in its plies to similar feeding and thelike n distillation processes. :1

- and inadvance of the the plunger cylinder, V I ng blades arranged n,eachpocket-i and ar forward positionas shown in Figure 2, the

' blades for that particular pocket will be in of the material in the hopper, because the blades on both sides of a pocket crush through the cylinders just in advance of the forward strokeof the plunger 14, and while the cylinder is making this forward stroke, the con tinued movement of the blades breaks up the material above. As a result the fuel must feed positively to its appropriate cylinder, and the whole system of plungers' and chutes is thereforet'doing the work-that is ezipected of it, with the result that the stoking is perfectly carried out.

its stated the inventionis shown as adapted for use with an under feed furnace-having a stocker of the plunger type, buti-t w'ilsltbe material at the entran'ce to'the readily seen that the same arrangement ap- I have shown and described the'preferred embodiment of invention, but some or the details. of the structure can be, departed from without affecting the invention}. the

importantthing being to have the cutting "blades arrangedsubstantially as showinthat 9 is so that they will rotate-l in the :feedpockets in such a manner as to, crush-through the fuel atthe entrance to the feed cylinders stroke ofatheplunger of such cylinder.

Iclaim': j

'1. A feeding device for stokers of the.

plunger type, having pockets 'deliveringriinto andicomprising rotatranged to move downward" in the pocket in advance-of theplun'ger i devices. for retorts r 2. A feeding attachment for stokers of i the plunger and pocket type, comprising :ro-

tating blades turning in the pocket and timed to swing downward in the pocket in advance of the -plunger stroke,:and to'swing upward in the pocket as the plunger is retracted;

3. In a stoking attachment of :the pocket and plunger type, a feeding device icompris ing rotating blades moving in the pockets in a vertical plane andspaced apart so as to enter the pocket near opposite sides of the entrance tothe pocket cylinder, and to move downward in advance of the plunger. 7

4. A feeding attachment forlstoke'rs'of the pocket and plunger :type having a hopper with a plurality of transverse pockets delivering into cylinders in which feed plungers move, and comprising a transverse shaft vextending through the hopper above the pockets, and blades secured to-the shaft and rotating therewith, said blades being arhaving reciprocating ward in each pocket in advance of the plunger for said pocket.

5. The combination with the hopper having a series of pockets delivering into cylinders' in which feed plungers move, of a transverse shaft extending per above the pockets, and blades spaced apart on said shaft and arranged in opposed pairs, each pair being adapted to swing downward into the pocket to a point near the entrance to the cylinder thereof in advance of the plunger for said cylinder.

6. The combination with the hopper and its feed pockets delivering into cylinders plungers, of a shaft extending transversely through the hopper and mounted in bearings on the walls of the pockets, and blades secured to said shaft and arranged in opposed pairs adapted to swing downward into the pockets and timed so that each pair of blades will move downward in the pocket to a point near the entrance to its cylinder in advance of the plunger for said cylinder.

7. In a structure of'the kind described having feed pockets as shown, the combination with the rotary shaft carrying blades, of

the bearings for said shaft, each comprising through the hopdling the wall of adjacent pockets and secured thereto.

8. In a structure of thelrind described,

the combination with the rotary shaft, of a block rigidly fastened to the shaft, and blades on the block, each blade being generally flat and arranged to move edgewise in the plane of rotation, the blades comprising opposed side members which straddle the block to which they are rigidly fastened,

and the said side members meeting at their outer extremities.

9. In a structure of the kind described, the combination with the hopper and its rotating shaft, of a block or member rigidly secured to the shaft, and diverging blades rigidly fastened to said block or member, each blade comprising opposed side members generally flat and arranged to move edgewise in the plane of rotation, the said side members of each blade straddling the block and meeting at their outer extremities. a.

JOHN CLIFFORD oAsLEn Witnesses ROBERT C. BURNHAM, WILLIAM J. FRnY. 

